Buy British?

[Monsieur Abeille]

Inspired by some folks concerns over the origin of their extractors, thought I'd ask who lets country of origin affect their purchases.

For the sake of clarity we'll ignore foodstuffs. EDIT and bees!

NOTE: for those with different foreign allegiances, please feel free to substitute Buy British for Buy Finnish, Buy French etc!

 

[Brosville]

In many fields these days it's completely impossible to "buy British" - so much stuff is made in the far east (particularly China), including many well-known ostensibly UK and European "brands" - worst of all, there's some very naughty "rebranding" of equipment to try to bamboozle the buyers into believing what they're buying is made in Europe - in the solar hot water field, probably 95% of vacuum tubes come from the PRC - some companies are open and upfront about it, but there are several Swiss, German and Austrian companies who rebrand them, and try to give the impression that they're "made in Europe".....

So sadly, there often is no choice with many goods, they just aren't made locally any more - the sort of thing that gets my goat are the big "trainer" companies who's products are made by an underage workforce, suffering from solvent fumes and slave conditions, and paid a pittance that are then resold here for over a hundred quid for a pair of superannuated plimsolls - all the profits going to the multinational corporations....

 

[jakethedog]

I, like many one time trainee builders was indoctrinated with the idea that when it comes to tools I should buy the very best that I can afford. A philosophy (combined with proper care of the tools once purchased) which has seen me put together a tool kit that for the most part will see out my useful days.

I'm not worried in the least where something comes from if, as someone else mentioned on that other thread, it's fit for purpose.

 

[Winker]

We brits built a reputation on making thing to the highest quality and first class customer services. Now we have a reputation of High prices and bad customer service and faulty goods.

Most people now look to Germany for High quality goods that’s why they still have a large manufacturing sector compared to the rest of Europe.

I find that I can buy the same high quality items made by the high quality manufactures at a lesser price from Hong Kong!

For example I just bought a new camera a Canon EOS 1D Mark IV for £3000 in Hong Kong, from a reputable retailer I may add, I have dealt with this retailer for many years. Exact same camera is £3600 in England to buy. To add insult to injury i get my deliverys faster from Hong Kong than i do from UK retailers! Go figure

I tend to stay away from Rip Off Britain if I can.

 

[BeeJayBee]

Individual components could be made almost anywhere in the world, but the label is attached where the parts are put together. Cars are, I think, a good example and so are some foodstuffs, including blended honey. So I'm not sure I entirely trust labelling any more, tend to ignore it and look at the quality, suitability and affordability of the product and, if possible, read reviews before making a final decision.

I have a Japanese camera, bought in Britain, but one of my lenses came from USA because it was so much cheaper. Our new cooker? Haven't a clue where it was made, we chose it and then went for the best deal, and the shortest delivery time.

 

[Skyhook]

In many fields these days it's completely impossible to "buy British" ....

I was going to tick 'prefer to buy british', but then saw it excluded foodstuffs: and really there is so little option to do so on other things it's hardly worth mentioning.

 

[alanf]

I find that I can buy the same high quality items made by the high quality manufactures at a lesser price from Hong Kong!

For example I just bought a new camera a Canon EOS 1D Mark IV for £3000 in Hong Kong, from a reputable retailer I may add, I have dealt with this retailer for many years. Exact same camera is £3600 in England to buy. To add insult to injury i get my deliverys faster from Hong Kong than i do from UK retailers! Go figure

I tend to stay away from Rip Off Britain if I can.

True, but I suspect a lot of the problem is the retail chain - that is, everything between assembly and the final customer including the manufacturer's marketing.

Many years ago I bought CDs in HK. UK musicians, pressed in Germany, packaged and printed in UK. Then shipped halfway around the world and sold in the most expensive retail space per sq meter in the world. Yet they sold at half the price they did on the UK high street. Independant electronic retailers told me the manufacturers are afraid of being dropped by the big chains, so won't see them undercut. The way many software companies simply change dollars to pounds in the UK is particularly annoying, Adobe are notorious for it.

Some of the old practices are being made obsolete by online retail. The reaction of all the 'luxury goods' manufacturers is to go to court when faced with grey imports. When a large percentage of the profits are purely down to the 'brand', the legal barrier is all they have left.

That's not to say that the bee equipment world is similar to the international 'superbrands' market. It's clearly not. Most of the manufacturers are small outfits selling direct or through a few agents. Even Thornes has only around a hundred employees in total and that's probably as many as the next four or five in the UK together. Even on a European scale, the well known suppliers don't appear to be a great deal larger. The possible exception being the bee food suppliers, although they are relatively small divisions of large commodity companies.

Part of the charm of beekeeping is that it is still a craft and if you want to, there's nothing to stop you making your own equipment.

 

[For want of a better word]

I own a Triumph motorcycle...... made at Hinkley.


I did buy a Honda... made in Brazil, looked at a BMW made... well not in Germany ( I think parts are machined in far far east and assembled in "Europe" somewhere, but no comparison to the less costly Triumph.

We do need to attempt to support our own manufactures IMO

 

[Nic Rhodes]

I always attempt to support local economies first and if I can get them British made to do the job I will. If the item does not exist I look to 'friendly' countries for supply, preferable through a UK agent, and as a last resort only do I deal abroad with foreign made products. Buying British mean jobs for people here.

 

[jakethedog]

I wonder if being self employed (at any kind of job) colours our approach to where and how we spend our money? Not only in the sense that we quickly learn the folly of buying kit which for one reason or another isn't quite up to the job but also because we are constantly competing against other (often British) self employed types who don't care if we go under so long as they survive. Good equipment can make the difference between loosing everything or not.

If it's British kit then great, but if someone else has made something better but still within my budget then that's OK too. It's helping to keep me working.

 

[Hombre]

Does anyone remember the time when buying a British TV was accompanied by an 'engineer' to set it up to work properly. The Japanese version had to work out of the box first time in any one of a dozen countries.

It took us far too long to get our act together.

 

[Headnavigator]

Does anyone remember the time when buying a British TV was accompanied by an 'engineer' to set it up to work properly. The Japanese version had to work out of the box first time in any one of a dozen countries.

It took us far too long to get our act together.

Except that the straight-out-of-the-box job often didn't, and then you were completely stuffed.

Buy Blitish!
At least then one has a fighting chance that the instructions will be comprehensible and not machine-translated gobbledygook.

 

[Teemore]

A small local company produces components used in the manufacture of generators by a multinational company. The generators are being built/assembled in China and a while back the local engineering company were told that their supply contract was going to be "trimmed" back as the multi-national was able to source the components cheaper in China. Several weeks later the multi-national contacted the local folk to see if they could salvage a rather large batch of mis-machined components... the guy who owns the company told them he could machine down components that were too large but in this instance he couldn't make them bigger. He is back manufacturing all these components which are then shipped out to China....

 

[Firefly]

I own a Triumph motorcycle...... made at Hinkley.

And if you fancy an Enfield Bullet you could get one made in Chennai

 

[rae]

I buy quality, regardless of location. If a British item has the quality, then I will buy it (and am probably willing to pay a bit more for a locally made product).

This is pretty self excluding for Chinese products (which are currently rubbish), but let's face it, Japanese stuff was rubbish in the 70s, and they beat the Germans hands down on quality now.

 

[Firefly]

Chinese products (which are currently rubbish)

ipad, for example?

Lenovo, for example?

 

[mbc]

Part of the charm of beekeeping is that it is still a craft and if you want to, there's nothing to stop you making your own equipment.

Which is one of the reasons I cant get along with poly hives.
I already own nice woodworking tools and enjoy using them, I bet alot of the timber I use is imported though !

 

[Brosville]

"This is pretty self excluding for Chinese products (which are currently rubbish)" is a broad sweeping generalisation that largely wrong - certainly there is some dross that comes out of China, but particularly in the field of electronics built under quality control from multinationals, the quality is top notch - (just search for the "Made in PRC" label on a laptop or camera).
Many western companies now have R&D in their own country, and then get the products made to their spec in China - which is generally far cheaper than getting them made here - sometimes components will be shipped from the far east, bolted together in Europe, and weaselled as "Made in Europe"...

 

[drstitson]

Had a very enjoyable afternoon a few years back, wandering around Murano and trying to spot the "Made in PRC" labelled boxes being brought onto the island to supply the shops with traditionally made "Italian" glass nick-nacks.

 

[Firefly]

Walking around the west end (Chinatown) a couple of weeks ago, could hardly get down one of the side streets past a large pallet of 15 litre cans of Chinese Rape Oil. That's a bit depressing